A Single Task Question

Hi Everyone:

I have a single task. I need to update some of the file properties fields
of about 300 image files for a wedding I just completed. I want to update
the 'Author' and 'Copyright' fields, but I don't want to have to right-
click, open the properties sheet, etc etc etc.

Can I do this in VB Script? I've been scanning the docs on Microsoft.com
and it's not readily apparent. I'm a SQL person primarily, so VB is kinda
alien. Any suggestions or pointers or doc references will be appreciated.

TIA,
Mike

Matthias
Tue Nov 02 11:36:21 CST 2004

Mike wrote:
>I have a single task. I need to update some of the file properties
>fields of about 300 image files for a wedding I just completed. I
>want to update the 'Author' and 'Copyright' fields, but I don't want
>to have to right- click, open the properties sheet, etc etc etc.
>
>Can I do this in VB Script? I've been scanning the docs on
>Microsoft.com and it's not readily apparent. I'm a SQL person
>primarily, so VB is kinda alien. Any suggestions or pointers or doc
>references will be appreciated.

Hi Mike,
IMO you are on the wrong track. Information stored in the current file
system (where the information from the property sheet goes) possibly
doesn't survive the transfer to a different media or file system.

You didn't state what picture format you are using. TIFF has (as the
name Tagged Image File Format implies) the ability to store information
inside the file. For jpg there are EXIF, IPTC and XMP extensions [1] to
the formats which contain addittional information.

Not all image manipulation programs are aware of these extensions and
might destroy them. So there are some utilities around to list save edit
and restore these tags. And also mass/bulk/batch edit.

CLI Tools:
ExifUtils http://www.hugsan.com/EXIFutils/index.html
jhead command line exif editor http://www.sentex.net/%7Emwandel/jhead/

For Irfanview there are plugins to read exif and IPTC www.irfanview.com

Viewer and metadata viewer/editor http://www.pixvue.com The site has an
informative faq-section http://www.pixvue.com/support/faq.html

Exifer http://www.friedemann-schmidt.com/software/exifer/

If you insist on using wsh, there is ImageMagick (but thats seems
overkill) http://www.imagemagick.org/ Find a mirror site and download
the less power hungry ImageMagick-6.x.x-Q8-windows.exe It incudes the:
<cite>
The ImageMagickObject is a COM+ compatible component that may be invoked
from any language capable of using COM objects. The intended use is for
Windows Scripting Host VBS scripts and Visual Basic, but it can also be
used from C++, ASP, and other languages like Delphi, Perl and PHP.
</cite>

HTH

[1] Exif http://www.exif.org
IPTC http://www.iptc.org
XMP http://www.adobe.com/products/xmp/main.html
--
Greetings
Matthias

Mike
Wed Nov 03 09:50:29 CST 2004

"Matthias Tacke" <Matthias.Tacke@web.de> wrote in news:cm8gil$dbu$04$1
@news.t-online.com:

> Hi Mike,
> IMO you are on the wrong track. Information stored in the current file
> system (where the information from the property sheet goes) possibly
> doesn't survive the transfer to a different media or file system.
>
The files are JPG files from a Nikon CoolPix 8700 camera. Does that mean
that when I right-click on a image file, choose the Summary tab, that the
properties listes there are file-format-specific? I have noticed that the
properties displayed are different on WinXP than Win2K (there are more in
XP), so I figured these were WinFS/NTFS/File System properties.

How far off-base am I?

Thanks,
Mike

Matthias
Wed Nov 03 10:20:22 CST 2004

Mike wrote:
>"Matthias Tacke" wrote:
>> IMO you are on the wrong track. Information stored in the current file
>> system (where the information from the property sheet goes) possibly
>> doesn't survive the transfer to a different media or file system.
>>
>The files are JPG files from a Nikon CoolPix 8700 camera. Does that mean
>that when I right-click on a image file, choose the Summary tab, that the
>properties listes there are file-format-specific? I have noticed that the
>properties displayed are different on WinXP than Win2K (there are more in
>XP), so I figured these were WinFS/NTFS/File System properties.
>
>How far off-base am I?
>
No that is correct. But this is a complex matter. The information is
displayed by property sheet handlers which differ between w2k and xp.
Some applications come with own extended property sheet handlers.
Which only *display* the file type information.
If you are aware of the fact that the information (independent of the
file type) is stored in ADS/DSO (alternate data streams/data stream
objects) in the ntfs file system and you can live with that, all is fine.

But copying to CD/FAT/USB-Sticks/Flopyy etc. will trash these properties.
Even applications which aren't aware of ADS and create a new file on
changes will trash these properties.

Reminds somehow at the forks from apple files transferred to pc's.

So for jpg's you have to decide which way your properties get lost ;-)
By old apps unaware of exif/IPTC sections inside the files or the
above mentioned ways to trash the properties.

--
Greetings
Matthias